Scientists say coastal erosion could erase Chilean beaches in a decade

Chile's central and southern coastlines are facing erosion that could cause at least 10 beaches to disappear within a decade, according to a team of scientists in the South American country, which stretches for several thousand kilometres along the Pacific Ocean.

"It will be very difficult for these beaches to survive the next 10 years," said Carolina Martinez, director of the Coastal Observatory at Universidad Catolica, in an interview this month on the Renaca beach near the popular coastal city of Vina del Mar.

Her team has tracked erosion on 67 beaches, finding that 86 per cent are steadily shrinking — even during spring and summer, when they typically recover.

Ten in particular, which already had high erosion in 2023, have continued to rapidly lose ground, with rates now about twice as high.

The causes are both natural and human-made, Martinez said.

She pointed to intense and increasingly frequent swells, along with rising sea levels, sudden downpours, and heat waves, as key factors. Unchecked urbanization and the degradation of river basins that supply sand to the coast have also contributed.

In Puerto Saavedra, in the southern region of Araucania, storm surges have carved sinkholes into roads and cliffs, cutting off access to some communities. The saltwater is damaging forests, too.

"We're seeing cliffs and sandy shores retreating rapidly," Martínez said.

Some local businesses in popular tourist towns are already feeling the impact. "Last year was brutal…the beach disappeared," said Maria Harris, who owns a beachfront restaurant in Valparaiso. "There was no space between us and the sea."

Despite the risks, construction continues along the coastline, often near wetlands and dunes. Martinez warned that the impacts go beyond the environment.

"We're transferring the cost of these disasters to people — fishermen, coastal communities, and the tourism sector," she said.

(Reporting by Nicolas Cortes and Carolina Fernandez; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon and Lucinda Elliott; Editing by Sandra Maler)